Middle School English and Language Arts UDL Instructional Unit - Lesson 2

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Objectives:

• Students will develop a more complex understanding of the physical and historical importance of the Mississippi River Valley within the era of Mark Twain's writing.
• Students will develop a clearer understanding of Mark Twain's view of the Mississippi River.
• Students will develop an understanding of the information provided by historical illustrations and images.

Essential Question(s):

• How does Mark Twain view the Mississippi River?
• How are steamboats represented in historical art?
• How does a deeper understanding of the Mississippi River Valley change your interpretation of Chapter 32 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
• How does Twain's informative writing differ from his literary writing?

Lesson Vocabulary:

Unique – having significant or meaningful qualities

Subordinate – of less importance

Navigable – able to be travelled by boat

Diminish – to grow smaller and smaller

Prodigious – extraordinary in size

Slumberous – having the qualities of sleep or sleepiness

Peculiarly – unusual, odd, or out of place

Materials:

• Either the book, "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain or access to a computer lab with internet connection. If a book is not available go to http://www.gutenberg.org/ and search for "Life on the Mississippi". The direct link for the html version is http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm The Gutenberg Project version is free and available in multiple formats. You only need Chapter 1 for the purposes of this lesson.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_Chapter32 PowerPoint is located in the support samples for each lesson. It may be used to review the plot, vocabulary and standards addressed in the lesson.
• Either the YouTube link provided here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lbxRNNp_Uc or search "Life on the Mississippi - Chapter 1: The River and Its History" in YouTube's search function. An audio book can also be purchased but you only need the contents of Chapter One.
• Pencils
• Lined paper

Lesson 2 – Introduction

1. Activate Previous Knowledge –
2. Students will share their graphic novels (Exit Slip) with their small group members and explain their predictions.
3. Teachers will then provide students with "Mississippi River Steamboat" color lithograph (1895) from the Library of Congress website in either a hard copy format or projected upon a screen (preferred because you can zoom into the image), as well as provide the Historical Camera Lucida Graphic Organizer. Row A is to be completed individually. This row requires the lower order thinking skills associated with identification of the objects and people in the photograph as well as a description of the setting. Under the "people" heading in row A, students may interpret the directions as referring to individual people or in the case of this image in particular, different types or categories of people. Either interpretation achieves the purpose of analyzing the image.


Refer to examples in Lesson 2 Appendix.


Upon completing row A and the description of setting as individuals, students share the responses in the same small group format. Students may add in objects, people, and descriptive details from each other's row A in order to have a more detailed and thorough graphic organizer. Working together, students will complete row B as a small group, with each individual recording the information on the graphic organizer. Row B addresses author's purpose through evaluating the significance of an object or person/type of person. When students are deciding on the most significant object or person in the image, the teacher should require that students provide a justification or reason for choosing the item and person from the image. This will increase discussion in small group and help students to develop a clearer understanding of the evaluative process.

4. Students will read Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain (his memoir).

Definitions:

Steamboat: river boat that uses steam power as the primary mode of propulsion.

River Valley: long lowland between ranges of mountains, hills, or other uplands, often having a river or stream running along the bottom.

Significant: having importance or meaning.

Lithograph: image produced on a flat surface, often metal, popular in the 19^th century.

Setting: time and place of a story.

Multiple means of representation – Graphic Novel page, Projected Image, visual learners

Multiple means of expression – Historical Camera Lucida Graphic Organizer, individual, small group

Multiple means of engagement – Digital image, visual learners, small group discussion, evaluative thinking skills

Additional Considerations for Emerging Readers

1. Students present their graphic novels to group members by:
• Verbally reading.
• Activating an audio recording.
• Touching each picture as a partner (peer or adult) reads.
• Providing printed copies to share.
2. Provide student with color lithograph of "Mississippi River Steamboat" (enlarged if necessary) and Historical Camera Lucida graphic organizer:
• Supplemented with symbol-based text.
• In digital format.
3. Depending upon students' needs, strengths, and interests, students may:
• Write their responses on the graphic organizer. Additionally, depending upon the objective of students' writing (independence, participation, fine motor development, etc.), students write independently (using inventive spelling, cursive vs. print, etc.), copy from a model, trace, or use other means.
• Digitally complete the organizer.
• Cut and paste symbol-based text icons for each response.
• Verbally, through eye-gaze, or otherwise indicate their responses and someone may scribe for students.
4. The graphic organizer may need to be manipulated so each row or column is on a different page if the students' response modes need more space. For example, if students are writing their answers but the writing is large, having the Row A alone on one piece of paper will give students more room to write.
5. Using any of the ideas in the previous bullets, students complete the remaining sections of the graphic organizer. If students have difficulty switching from objects to people based upon the completion of the graphic organizer rows, they could complete the organizer column by column. Color coding the background of each column may help students connect all the information on the graphic organizer around a s setting or event.
• During the small group work:
  • Provide students with information from the lithograph in their communication modes so they contribute to the class activity. As students provide information for the graphic organizer, remove information from choices as they are presented so students do not repeat information.
  • Provide additional cues to assist students in learning how to determine the most appropriate answer. For example, in Row B, first column, ask questions such as "How many steamboats do you see?", "Are there more steamboats or anchors?", or "What is the biggest object in the picture?" This will help students learn how to interpret this as well as other graphics encountered in reading.
6. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions to assure that:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

7. Give students the choice of adding information from other students to their graphic organizer as they wish.
8. Provide Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain:
• In symbol-based text format.
• In a summarized format (in symbol-based text format or not).
• Through the use of a text reader.
9. As students read Chapter 1:
• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to details in the text that will assist in answering the questions in the next activity.


See Lesson 2 – Body, page*****

• Provide a bubble or satellite graphic organizer and have or assist students in discriminating details from the text about the Mississippi River, using any of the strategies above to complete the organizer.

Additional Considerations for Emerging Communicators

1. Students present their graphic novels to group members by:
• Verbally reading students say as many words as possible, either a word that summarizes each picture or a key word from the text for each picture with a partner (peer or adult) reading the rest.
• Activating an audio recording using assistive technology as appropriate (entire page or each picture requiring technology activation).
• Touching or otherwise indicating (eye-gaze, etc.) each picture as a partner (peer or adult) reads.
• Providing printed copies to share.
2. Provide student with color lithograph of "Mississippi River Steamboat:"
• Enlarged if necessary.
• Supplemented with textures (cotton for smoke, a turning wheel for the paddlewheel, etc.).
• In a digital format with sections that, when activated by a mouse click, provide auditory input (whistle for the steamship, dock sounds, for the workers on the barge, etc.).
• Cut apart into "puzzle pieces" which students manipulate as each section is discussed.
3. Provide student with Historical Camera Lucida graphic organizer:
• Adapted with tactile cues such as outlining the graphics with glue or pipe cleaners/Wikki Stix, etc.
• With each graphic area supplemented with a different textural/color background.
• With reduced number of graphics on a page (object column on one page and people column on another)
• And students use visual or tactile symbols to complete the organizer.

Provide choices for students to answer questions that complete the graphic organizer.

• Depending upon students' abilities to make appropriate choices, the choices may be obviously discrepant in correctness (one correct vs. obviously incorrect) and number of choices provided (one correct and one incorrect vs. one correct and three incorrect).
4. Students use their established communication system s(technologically-based, eye gaze, touch, verbalization/vocalizations, etc.) combined with visual or tactile symbols to complete the graphic organizer.
5. Manipulate the graphic organizer:
• So each row is on a different page if the mode of students' responses requires more space.
• So each column of the graphic organizer is on a different page so students concentrate on either objects or people.
• By providing color coding of the columns.
• By providing textured backgrounds to the rows.
• By providing extra tactile/visuals cues to the organizer such as outlining the graphics with glue or pipe cleaners/Wikki Stix, etc.
6. Pre-teach any new concepts or words students may not have mastered so they more effectively use the symbols representing those referents.
7. During the small group work:
• Provide students with information from the lithograph in their communication modes so they contribute to the class activity. As students provide information for the graphic organizer, remove information from students' choices as they are presented so students do not repeat information.
• Provide additional cues to assist students in learning how to correctly determine the most appropriate answer. For example, in Row B, first column, ask questions such as "How many steamboats do you see?", Are there more steamboats or anchors?", or "What is the biggest object in the picture?" To complete Row B, second column, cut out all the people in the lithograph so when given the question of "Who is the most important person in the image?", the size difference is isolated, giving students a better chance of answering correctly. These presentation accommodations will help students learn how to interpret this as well as other pictures encountered in reading.
8. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions which accomplishes three objectives:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

• Give students the choice of adding information from other students to their graphic organizer as they wish. Students use their preferred modes of communicating acceptance or refusal (yes/no) to accomplish this.
9. Provide Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain:
• With text reader which students activate through adaptive switch(es) as appropriate.
• Summarized in auditory format which students may or may not control through switch use as appropriate.
• With main ideas, characters, settings, events, etc. (in summarized and/or auditory format or not) supplemented with visual or tactile cues and/or other referents (photographs, symbols, concrete objects/realia or other tactile systems such as the Standard Tactile Symbol List available from the Texas School for the Blind www.tsbvi.edu/tactile-symbols. Some referents may need to be pre-taught (Rowland, 2012). Use of the same referents (or the system) during this and other texts will reduce the need for pre-teaching.
• As students read Chapter 1:

• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to details in the text that will assist in answering the questions in the next activity


See Lesson 2 – Body, page

• Provide a bubble or satellite graphic organizer and have or assist students in discriminating details from the text about the Mississippi River, using any of the strategies above to complete the organizer.

b. Establish Goals/Objectives for the Lesson

• Students will be able to analyze the structure of an informative text.

(Physical History compared to "Historical" History a division designated by Mark Twain)

1. Students will describe important events.
2. Students will create a timeline of events.

• Students will apply relevant information about the Mississippi River from Twain's memoir to his literary pieces.
• Students will compare a written text to an audio text.
• Students will evaluate author's purpose.

Multiple means of representation – Audio version of the text, digital version of the text available,

Multiple means of expression – Written form, typed responses,

Multiple means of engagement – Digital version

Lesson 2 - Body

Direct Instruction and/or Facilitation of the Lesson Activity(ies) –

1. Students will answer the following question individually upon completing the reading. Potential student responses are in plain text.
2. According to Mark Twain, why is the Mississippi River unique and "worth reading about"? There aren't any other rivers like it physically or historically. Physically, it carries a lot of water and covers a large territory. It grows narrower as it reaches the ocean. It also deposits a great deal of soil. The Mississippi River was being discovered in America by Europeans while other important and famous events were taking place in Europe.
3. The teacher will play the audio version of "Life on the Mississippi - Chapter 1: The River and Its History" from either an audio book version or youtube.com (The YouTube version is not a copyrighted audio book; it is an individual reading the book aloud chapter by chapter.) Upon listening to the audio version, students will answer the following questions. Student responses are in plain text.
4. According to Mark Twain, why is the Mississippi River unique and "worth reading about"? -See exemplar above, and note that a second exposure to the text, even in the alternate format, will result in a more detailed response.
5. How did your answer change after hearing the text read aloud? It became more detailed. I understood it better.
6. What are the differences between the written version and the audio version? The audio version is harder to follow. Or, the audio version is easier to understand and clearer. Which do you prefer? Answers will vary.
7. Students will get into small groups and form a written response to the following question:
8. What do you know about Mark Twain's feelings for the Mississippi River? He is very impressed by it. He feels very strongly toward it and he knows a lot about it.
9. What specific examples from the text support your answer? He talks in detail about its physical characteristics, comparing it to other rivers and locations. He also is able to compare the discovery of the Mississippi to other important events (larger historical context).

Multiple means of representation – Audio and Visual versions of the text,

Multiple means of expression –verbal response, written response, working in small group

Multiple means of engagement – small group work, audio and written text

Additional Considerations for Emerging Readers

1. To answer the question "According to Mark Twain, why is the Mississippi River unique and 'worth reading about'?":
• Students use the information that was previously highlighted or contained on the satellite/bubble graphic organizer.
• Students use their preferred modes of communication.
• Provide a fewer number of choices from which to answer to the question.
2. As the audio version of "Life on the Mississippi - Chapter 1: The River and Its History" is presented to all students, supplement it with the text version (with the all of the accommodations already in place) and the additional graphic organizer if that was used as an accommodation.
3. During the large group activity after the presentation of the audio version of the text in which the class as a whole answers questions:
• Provide students with information and possible answers to questions in their communication modes so they contribute to the class activity.
4. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions to assure that:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

5. During the small group activity in which students develop a consensus answer to the two questions:
• Provide students with information and possible answers (as many or as few as is appropriate) to questions in their communication modes so they contribute to the group activity.
6. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions to assure that:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

• Students use the text version (with the all of the accommodations already in place) and the additional graphic organizer if that was used as an accommodation to provide choices for examples from the text.

Additional Considerations for Emerging Communicators

1. To answer the question "According to Mark Twain, why is the Mississippi River unique and 'worth reading about'?":
• Students use the information that was previously highlighted or contained on the satellite/bubble graphic organizer.
• Students use their preferred modes of communication.
• Provide a fewer number of choices from which to answer to the question.
2. As the audio version of "Life on the Mississippi - Chapter 1: The River and Its History" is presented to all students, supplement it with the text version (with the all of the accommodations already in place) and the additional graphic organizer if that was used as an accommodation.
3. During the large group activity following the presentation of the auditory version of the text in which the class as a whole answers questions:
• Provide students with information and possible answers (as many or as few as is appropriate) to questions in their communication modes so they contribute to the class activity.
4. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions to assure that:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

5. During the small group activity in which students develop a consensus answer to the two questions:
• Provide students with information and possible answers (as many or as few as is appropriate) to questions in their communication modes so they contribute to the group activity.
6. Pre-plan certain pieces of information for students' large group contributions to assure that:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

• Students use the text version (with the all of the accommodations already in place) and the additional graphic organizer if that was used as an accommodation to provide choices for examples from the text.

Lesson 2 - Practice

1. Inform students (still in small groups) that Mark Twain divided Chapter 1 into two distinct sections in order to provide a clear structure for the reader. Twain's two sections, which he calls "the physical history" of the river and the "historical history" of the river, provide an organizational structure for the information in Chapter 1. Inform students that they will be evaluating each section separately in order to better understand the structure of this informative text.
2. Students will describe each of the three most important points made by Twain during the physical history portion of the text. (Refer to the Appendix.)
3. Upon completing the activity, the groups will share their descriptions with the whole class.
4. The teacher will inform students that the second section of Chapter one is presented in a sequential organizational structure. In order to better understand the chronological sequence of this portion of the text, the small groups of students will verbally identify (through discussion) all examples of a time signature within the text. Upon completing the verbal identification process, students will create a timeline of chronological events in what Mark Twain calls the historical history of the Mississippi River. This product will also be shared with the whole class and placed on a wall in the class.


(*OF NOTE*) It is very important to note that Twain includes many European events (which can be distracting to students), but students need to be directed toward the events that only apply to the Mississippi River itself

(See Appendix).




The European events are supplied by the author so the discovery of the Mississippi River will be viewed as of equal importance to the European events that helped to shape world history during that day and time. This aspect of Twain's view of the Mississippi river's importance needs to be communicated to students. Inform students that the events in Europe that Twain describes are important to world history and Twain wants the reader to feel that the Mississippi being found is just as important as the works of Shakespeare, the Reformation in Europe or the English Civil War. This is why he is so shocked that it was left unexplored for so long.

Multiple means of representation – Small group, logical-mathematical (sequential) structures of text, whole class

Multiple means of expression – Written responses, timelines (visual), sequential diagrams may vary, verbal communication.

Multiple means of engagement – small group, whole group, displayed product on wall

Additional Considerations for Emerging Readers

1. Review Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, focusing only upon the physical history portion of the text:
• In symbol-based text format
• In a summarized format (in symbol-based text format or not).
• Through the use of a text reader.
2. As students review the physical history portion of Chapter 1:
• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to three important points in the text that can be used to contribute to the small group work. Additionally, these important points could be written on sticky notes (supplemented with icons as necessary), cut from the text, or otherwise "pulled out" from the text so students read or show those points to participate in the small group.
3. If students are is chosen to share their group's work with the whole class, they can:
• Read it aloud.
• Read certain words or symbols they know while a partner (peer or adult) reads the others. For example, if the first point was "The Mississippi River is huge", the partner might read "The Mississippi _____ is huge" and students read the word "River" at the appropriate time in the sentence.
• Touch each word or symbol as a partner reads.
• Activate an audio recording of the work.
• Provide printed copies of the work to classmates.
4. Review Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, focusing only upon the historical history portion of the text:
• In symbol-based text format
• In a summarized format (in symbol-based text format or not).
• Through the use of a text reader.
5. As students review the historical history portion of Chapter 1:
• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to all examples of a time signature in the text that can be used to contribute to the small group work. Additionally, these time signatures could be written on sticky notes (supplemented with icons as necessary), cut from the text, or otherwise "pulled out" from the text so students read or show these time signatures to participate in the small group.
6. Provide a personal graphic organizer and, according to students' needs:
• Make each space larger if the mode of students' responses requires more space.
• Number each space on the timelines to help students sequence the information in chronological order.
7. As the small group decides what information to put on the graphic organizer, students complete their personal graphic organizers by:
• Using a pencil or other writing instrument. They can copy from another student's work.
• Digitally write the information using plain text or a symbol-based text program.
• Sequencing (independently, verbally, through eye-gaze, the use of assistive technology, cut and paste, etc.) the events in chronological order.
• Reducing the number of events to work with.
8. If students are chosen to share their group's work with the whole class, they can use any of the strategies listed above in the previous sharing activity.

Additional Considerations for Emerging Communicators

1. Review Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, focusing only upon the physical history portion of the text:
• With text reader which students activate through adaptive switch(es) as appropriate.
• Summarized in auditory format which students may or may not control through switch use as appropriate.
• With main ideas, characters, settings, events, etc. (in summarized and/or auditory format or not) supplemented with visual or tactile cues and/or other referents (photographs, symbols, concrete objects/realia or other tactile systems such as the Standard Tactile Symbol List available from the Texas School for the Blind www.tsbvi.edu/tactile-symbols. Some referents may need to be pre-taught (Rowland, 2012). Use of the same referents (or the system) during this and other texts will reduce the need for pre-teaching.
2. As students review the physical history portion of Chapter 1:
• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to three important points in the text that can be used to contribute to the small group work. Additionally, these important points could be written on sticky notes (supplemented with icons as necessary), cut from the text, represented by objects, recorded into a voice output device, or otherwise "pulled out" from the text so students read, state (using assistive technology), or show those points (using their preferred modes of communication) to participate in the small group.
3. If student are chosen to share their group's work with the whole class, they can:
• Read it aloud, repeating short phrases provided auditorily by a partner.
• Read certain words or symbols they know while a partner (peer or adult) reads the others. For example, if the first sentence was "The Mississippi River is huge", the partner might read "The Mississippi _____ is huge" and students read the word "River" at the appropriate time in the sentence.
• Use symbols, pictures/photographs, concrete objects/realia, textures, etc. to read their words by holding-up, touching, or otherwise indicating which referent indicates the word in the blank.
• Touch each word or symbol as a partner reads.
• Activate an audio recording of the paragraph. For students working on cause and effect through the use of assistive technology, they might be required to activate the recording to read each individual sentence or fill in the blank. (See second sub-bullet above.) Students who use assistive technology devices where each switch has a different point might activate the recordings of the points individually.
• Provide printed copies of the work to classmates.
4. Review Chapter 1 of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, focusing only upon the historical history portion of the text:
• With text reader which students activate through adaptive switch(es) as appropriate.
• Summarized in auditory format which students may or may not control through switch use as appropriate.
• With main ideas, characters, settings, events, etc. (in summarized and/or auditory format or not) supplemented with visual or tactile cues and/or other referents (photographs, symbols, concrete objects/realia or other tactile systems such as the Standard Tactile Symbol List available from the Texas School for the Blind www.tsbvi.edu/tactile-symbols. Some referents may need to be pre-taught (Rowland, 2012). Uuse of the same referents (or the system) during this and other texts will reduce the need for pre-teaching.
5. As students review the historical history portion of Chapter 1:
• Have or assist them in highlighting, underlining, or otherwise calling attention to all examples of a time signature in the text that can be used to contribute to the small group work. Additionally, these time signatures could be written on sticky notes (supplemented with icons as necessary), cut from the text, represented by objects, recorded into a voice output device, or otherwise "pulled out" from the text so students read, state (using assistive technology), or show those time signatures (using their preferred modes of communication) to participate in the small group.
6. Provide personal graphic organizers and according to students' needs:
• Manipulate the graphic organizer:
  • So each space is larger.
  • By numbering each space.
  • By providing textured backgrounds to the spaces.
  • By providing extra tactile/visuals cues to the organizer such as outlining the spaces with glue or pipe cleaners/Wikki Stix, etc. or providing containers instead of "2 dimensional" spaces.
  • By reducing the number of events students must work with.
7. If students are chosen to share group's work with the whole class, they use any of the strategies listed above in the previous sharing activity.

Lesson 2 - Closure

a. Revisit/Review Lesson and Objectives – Address these in closure:

The teacher asks students the following questions as a closing activity. Potential student responses are in plain text.

1. Which structure is easier for a reader to understand? Why? The physical description is easier to follow because everything in that section is about the Mississippi River, but the historical section has information that is confusing.
2. Why does Mark Twain structure Chapter 1 this way? He knows a lot of facts and information about the Mississippi and he thinks that the river is really important, just as important as the events in Europe. It would have been easier to understand if he hadn't included the European events. Maybe he should not have used to different structures.
3. Based on what we have read so far, what is the central idea of the text? The Mississippi is important to Mark Twain. And according to Twain, it is very impressive.
4. How does Mark Twain view the Mississippi River? He is very impressed by it and thinks it is very important.
5. How does Twain try to persuade the reader? He shows how different the river is from other rivers and he wants the reader to see how important the river is.
6. How does a deeper understanding of the Mississippi River Valley change your interpretation of Chapter 32 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? When Tom saw the river he was thankful. Tom and Becky were saved by a boat on the river.
7. Remember you only read one chapter of Tom Sawyer and Twain has a strong opinion about the Mississippi River. If Twain were to use the River as a setting for a chapter in a book, how do you think his characters would feel about the river? He would still be impressed by it, so his characters would be impressed by it to.

Multiple means of representation – Discussion

Multiple means of expression – Discussion

Multiple means of engagement – Discussion

Additional Considerations for Emerging Readers

1. During the large group activity during which the teacher asks questions for students to answer:
• Students use materials as responses that might require more complex answers than students' communication allows them to present. For example, when the teacher asks a question such as "Which structure is easier for a reader to understand?", with a follow-up reminder of "physical history or historical history," students indicate their answers by referencing the actual graphic organizers for one or the other structure as opposed to verbalizing (or using another communication mode) the answer.
• Provide answer choices to students for any question that will be asked in class. This may require the addition of some new vocabulary in students' communication systems (verbal or other) and those words need to be accessible or available for students to use (on the communication board, in the AAC device, etc.).
2. Certain questions and answers might be pre-planned for students. For example, it may be that teacher(s) decides that students are asked a specific question so some pre-teaching may occur to allow that student to answer correctly. Pre-planning accomplishes three objectives:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

Additional Considerations for Emerging Communicators

1. Students use materials as responses that might require more complex answers than students' communication allows them to present. For example, when the teacher asks a question such as "Which structure is easier for a reader to understand?", with a follow-up reminder of "physical history or historical history", students indicate their answers by referencing the actual graphic organizers for one or the other structure as opposed to verbalizing (or using another communication mode) the answer. If students have or is working on a "yes/no" response, questions might be reworded to take advantage of that skill, such as rephrasing the above question to "Was the physical (or historical) structure easy to understand?" or "Was the physical structure easier to understand than the historical structure?"
2. Provide answer choices to students for any question that will be asked in class. This may require the addition of some new vocabulary in students' communication systems (verbal or other) so those words need to be in their vocabulary (on the communication board, in the AAC device, etc.). New vocabulary may need to be pre-taught connecting and word to its symbolic referent. Answer choices can vary from one correct answer and one incorrect answer to more incorrect answers (distractors) as students become more proficient at making choices.
3. Certain questions and answers might be pre-planned for students. For example, it may be that teacher(s) decides that students are asked a specific question so some pre-teaching may occur to allow that student to answer correctly. This accomplishes three objectives:

• Students know the answers.
• Students participate more fully in the large group.
• Students can be more successfully engaged and positively reinforced.

Exit Assessment –

On a sheet of paper have students return to their small groups and complete the following exit slip:

Predict how a future literary writing by Mark Twain would use the Mississippi River Valley as the primary setting…What types of activities would the main character participate in? The main character could be on a boat or work near the river. They could also really like the river like Twain does. How could the Mississippi River be used as a setting in a story about a mischievous boy? The boy could play tricks on people near the river, or he could scare people while they are fishing.

Multiple means of representation – Written response

Multiple means of expression – Responses could be depicted visually through a drawing or images supplied by the internet

Multiple means of engagement – Story design

Additional Considerations for Emerging Readers

1. Provide several possible topics and several plausible but not correct topics for students to choose from when predicting what Mark Twain might write about in a future literary writing about the Mississippi River Valley. Because this is an assessment activity (as opposed to any of the previous instructional activities, it is important to provide choices that require students to demonstrate their abilities to make logical predictions; this is why the incorrect choices provided must be plausible. For example, if the choices given were "The main character could be on a boat" and "The main character could float in the clouds", the "cloud" answer is really not a plausible choice so it would be a stretch to say students could make a logical prediction. However, if the choices given were "The main character could be on a boat" and "The main character could be on an expressway" students discriminate between two plausible places the main character might be even though the "expressway" answer would not be correct in the context of a literary text about the Mississippi River Valley and the river.
2. Students use their established communication systems (technologically-based, eye gaze, touch, verbalization/vocalizations, etc.) to make their predictions.
3. Depending upon students' needs, strengths, and interests, students may:
• Write their answers.
• Additionally, depending upon the objective of students' writing (independence, participation, fine motor development, etc.), students may write independently (using inventive spelling, cursive vs. print, etc.), copy from a model, trace, or use other means.
• Digitally write the answers.
• Cut and paste symbol-based text icons for each answer.
• Verbally, through eye-gaze, or otherwise indicate which answer someone else may scribe.
• Work with a reduced complexity of prediction.

Additional Considerations for Emerging Communicators

1. Provide several possible topics and several plausible but not correct topics for students to choose from when predicting what Mark Twain might write about in a future literary writing about the Mississippi River Valley. Because this is an assessment activity (as opposed to any of the previous instructional activities, it is important to provide choices that require students to demonstrate their abilities to make logical predictions; this is why the incorrect choices provided must be plausible. For example, if the choices given were "The main character could be on a boat" and "The main character could float in the clouds", the "cloud" answer is really not a plausible choice so it would be a stretch to say students could make a logical prediction. However, if the choices given were "The main character could be on a boat" and "The main character could be on an expressway," students discriminate between two plausible places the main character might be even though the "expressway" answer would not be correct in the context of a literary text about the Mississippi River Valley and the river.
2. Allow students to use their established communication systems (technologically-based, eye-gaze, touch, verbalization/vocalizations, symbol-based icons, photographs/pictures, concrete objects/realia, etc.) to make their predictions/choices. A less complex prediction might be expected using these types of communication modes.

Lesson 2 - Resources

"Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain

www.gutenberg.org

Audio book version of "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain

Adapted Historical Camera Lucida Unit 1 Lesson 2 ER.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g09893/

Lesson 2 - Appendix

MS lesson 2 tactile steamboat EC.pdf

Life on the Mississippi Physical Descriptions:

1. The Mississippi River is huge. One of its tributaries is the longest river in the world—four thousand three hundred miles. The Mississippi is also the most crooked river in the world. It pumps out more water than other major European rivers. Its water supply comes from twenty-eight States and Territories. The Mississippi carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four rivers that can be travelled by steamboats. The area of its drainage-basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey; and almost all this wide region can be farmed.
2. It is also very unique because instead of getting wider and bigger toward its mouth, it grows more narrow and deeper. From the Ohio River to a point half way down to the sea, the river is mile wide. But above the mouth, it is only half a mile wide. Where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River its depth is eighty-seven feet, but it is one hundred and twenty-nine feet just above the mouth.
3. The river dumps four hundred and six million tons of mud into the Gulf of Mexico every year. That is a square mile of mud that would be two hundred and forty-one feet high. Some scientists believe that two hundred miles of land between Baton Rouge and the Gulf was built by the river.










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